Monday, June 23, 2014

We're Wallpaper Free!

Sort of. If you don't count the fact that wepainted over all the wallpaperin the kitchen. The last remaining visible wallpaper was in our guest bath and it was finally time to send it packing.

I'm realizing that I did a horrible (technically non-existent) job at photo documenting the removal of the wallpaper. There really wasn't much to see though. The top layer of this wallpaper was SO easy to remove...I'm assuming the
steam from many uses of the shower helped out our cause. No water,
fabric softener or steamer was required in removing it. Just our good
ole' fingers. We probably took the majority of the top layer of the wallpaper off in an
hour or two.

Doesn't it look so fresh and so clean (clean)?

The backing layer wasn't going anywhere though. I kept visualizing the nightmare that was our half-bath. Remember? It took FOREVER to get the wallpaper backing off the walls. And that was a quarter of the size of this bathroom. Here's a visual in case you want to re-live the misery.

I refuse to do that again. I turned to plan B. We had such great success painting over the wallpaper in the kitchen so this time I decided to keep the backing on and texture over it. I wasn't sure if the backing would soak the texture up differently because it's more of a porous paper-y material than the top layer of wallpaper. I tested it out by texturing over a seam. I mainly wanted to make sure it didn't peel up or bubble from the mud.

Luckily, the mud dried perfectly. I haven't actually textured the whole room...just this tiny test section. Soon enough, you'll find out why the walls aren't done yet. (hint: we have another big project on the to-do list in this room that we have to finish first). Gotta love cliffhangers.